Its Frank Zappa

This was recorded on 26.4.88. The drum machine is used on this and although it was a cheap, primitive one and had a very cheesy sound it is quite interesting to hear us trying to do something with it in this context. I have put it on Internet Archive in two parts cos there were too many files to upload in one go. If anyone wants to put it on cd just download both parts and burn as disc-at-once. At this rehearsal we were - Paul Moller - guitar,vocals, Trevor Simpson - guitar, Mr Rudeforth - tapes, radio, plus the drum machine. I can't remember what make or model it was. The bit where the drum machine was chunterring away and then some percussion stuff comes on the radio led me to exclaim - "It's Frank Zappa!"

1. Mystery Train
2. Blues Bit
3. Screaming And Crying The Blues
4. Its Frank Zappa
5. Lonesome Whistle
6. Hip Hop Radio
7. Me And My Chuffer With Bells On
8. Sellotape And The Mic
9. Squid Laffers
10. Dead Flowers
11. Radio Donkey
12. Long Slow Hell Hound
13. Belching Beckett
14. Driving Me Crazy

http://www.archive.org/details/ItsFrankZappaPartOne

http://www.archive.org/details/ItsFrankZappaPartTwo

The Little Vermifuge

Get on board the boozy blues train with Katy and groove to the crazed tinkling maniac breath. Smoking on the one. One of Trevors neighbours was complaining to another neighbour one day about our music. "It's rubbish," she said, "it just goes - ner, ner,ner,ner,ner!" This is from 19.4.88 and where the Bananarama bit came from I will never know. For some reason the track breaks on this have gone ga-ga but it should just play as one long piece if you ignore the seemingly arbitrary divisions.

Moller, Simpson, Rudeforth, Burroughs.

1. Bobs Blues
2. Driving Me Crazy
3. Na Na Nah Nah Na Na
4. Long Time Gone
5. Tinkling Maniac Breath
6. You What, Talk About Stupid
7. The Little Vermifuge
8. Beckett Play Bit
9. Me And My Chuffer
10. Bit Of King Al

http://www.archive.org/details/TheLittleVermifuge

Warm Beer And Cold Women

Gary had a very cheap, basic drum machine which he let us use when he was late or didn't turn up. The problem was that once we started playing we couldn't hear it very well so the timing could vary wildly, we persevered with it for a few weeks before we sent it off down the tracks to join Lonesome Whistle. The stereo separation on these tapes is pretty good and if anyone is interested my guitar is on the same channel as my vocals. This was recorded on 12.4.88.

1. Mouth 1
2. Mystery train
3. Death Of MF
4. Mouth 2
5. Death Of MF
6. Me And My Chuffing Schoolgirl
7. Improvisation
8. Mouth 3
9. Bollocks
10. Opera Gary

Http://www.archive.org/details/WarmBeerAndColdWomen

Spam Town

This is the first week when it all came together and we realised that we had something good we could work on and take somewhere. It was a total departure for me to be doing something this tuneful but after all the years of experimental madness or just madness, it was nice to do something different. I present on 29.3.88 - Paul Moller - guitar, vocals, Trevor Simpson - guitar, Mr. Rudeforth - tapes, radio, Gary Burroughs - snare drum. We were always conscious of the noise and towards the end I think one of the neighbours comes to complain but we manage to knock another tune out regardless. The big problem for me is that I was not really a singer but there was no-one else so I had to do it. I didn't think that I could sing and still don't, it's more like trying to intone in time. I love Hank Williams and we wanted to do a version of his Lonesome Whistle but I couldn't sing it, we played it a few times and eventually gave up and dropped it but not without a struggle as you can hear!

1. Launderette Love
2. Voodoo Chile
3. Poor Boy Dead And Gone
4. Improvisation
5. Long Time Gone
6. Frisco Lines
7. Joviality
8. Lonesome Whistle

http://www.archive.org/details/SpamTown

Cack and Commotion

This is a compilation from 26.01.88 and 29.01.88 which were the first couple of rehearsals by What Katy Did Next featuring the new line-up and instrumentation. It had been a few years since we had played acoustic but for me at the time it was a welcome respite from the loud crazyness of the autumn 1987 stuff. I had been playing a lot of acoustic blues by myself in the sun in the garden during the summer of 1987 and this was a logical extension of that activity augmented by Trevors decision later in the year to throw his lot in with us and see what happened (next). So then there was Paul Moller-guitar,vocal, Trevor Simpson-guitar, Kev Rudeforth-tapes,radio,effects, and Gary Burroughs-drums. We used to practice in the back room at Trevors' house which had no carpet so the wooden floorboards gave a nice ambience. This compilation is mainly the bits in between the songs as we were only just starting to work on a new repertoire. The next few postings are of almost complete rehearsals and you will be able to hear how quickly and easily we got to grips with the new sound and material but at this point it was a bit shaky and we were working our way into it slowly. I listened to this late the other night on headphones and my girlfriend was sleeping in the next room, I was laughing at some of the bits so loudly that I had to keep shoving my fist in my mouth to stifle the noise so I didn't wake her up. We developed a routine of meeting in the pub and having a couple of pints then going to the off-license and buying a big bottle of cider before retiring to Trevs' place for a smoke and then recording our musical (or otherwise) utterances. Them were the days.

http://www.archive.org/details/CackAndCommotion